This invention relates to assist devices for occupants of wheelchairs and to methods of repositioning occupants of wheelchairs, and more particularly to a head care station for use by an occupant of a wheelchair, a kit therefore, and a method for reclining the occupant of a wheel chair against a head support.
It is difficult to provide head care, such as shampoos, to persons confined to wheelchairs and other personal transport devices. Beauty or barber chairs are available, which will recline a seated person against a horizontal or nearly horizontal head support. To perform head care for a person confined to a wheelchair or other personal transport device, the person must first be transferred into the reclining chair. This is time consuming and difficult and in some circumstances presents an insurmountable burden; for example, where the occupant of the wheelchair is too heavy for the care provider to lift. The reclining chair may also present, in effect, a barrier to access for otherwise independent persons confined to wheelchairs.
It is therefore highly desirable to provide an improved head care station and an improved kit therefore and an improved method for reclining the occupant of a wheelchair against a head support.
It is also highly desirable to provide an improved head care station and an improved kit therefore and an improved method for reclining an occupant of a wheelchair against a head support from which head care may be provided to the occupant of a wheelchair or other personal transport device while the occupant remains in that wheelchair or device.
It is also highly desirable to provide an improved head care station and an improved kit therefore and an improved method for reclining the occupant of a wheelchair against a head support, in which a wheelchair and occupant may be first placed in a reclined position, and then a head support raised against the occupant.
It is also highly desirable to provide an improved head care station and an improved kit therefore and an improved method for reclining the occupant of a wheelchair against a head support, in which the head care station is useful for wheelchairs, gurneys and other personal transport devices, without modification.
It is also highly desirable to provide an improved head care station and an improved kit therefore and an improved method for reclining the occupant of a wheelchair against a head support which may be used by a single operator either with no assistance or with unskilled assistance.
It is finally highly desirable to provide an improved head care station and an improved kit therefore and an improved method for reclining the occupant of a wheelchair against a head support which combines all of the above desired features.